Compassion
by RandyPandy
Summary: One year after the fall of Master X, Harpuia finds a badly-damaged Zero out in the desert. -RMZ2-


Okay, I'll admit, I wrote this last night, around midnight. I tried to edit it just now, and I hope I did okay. This is my first time dabbling in the Rockman Zero universe, and I hope I did alright. This is the scene from RMZ2 during the intro stage, where Harpuia rescues an unconscious Zero in the desert.

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Harpuia frowned as he gazed out into the desert.

_Something_ had triggered the Neo Arcadian Defense system that had been placed here years – no, decades -- ago, and since he was now technically the leader of Neo Arcadia because both Master X and his older brother Phantom had been gone for a year, he had come here to investigate. He had expected it to probably be something small, like a pack of wild animals, but if it had been a pack of wild animals, then why was everything wrecked? Not only were the Pantheons, the vulture-mechaniloids, and such were wrecked – even the Golems had been destroyed, their wreckages sitting on the ground in several pieces.

He looked down at Aztec Falcon, who he was riding through the skies. While Harpuia could have very well used his own jet thrusters, he had felt something tell him not to, to take Aztec Falcon instead. Those feelings had been coming more and more frequently, as if some instinct was guiding him on.

His head snapped up suddenly as he heard a screech coming from farther on the desert. It sounded like the giant scorpion Mechaniloid that had been placed. Had it engaged something? Urging Falcon on, he flew towards the sound, not getting too close once he spotted the Mechaniloid, and his eyes widened.

The scorpion was doing its best to fire off its pincers at a red Reploid with a green saber darting here and there. Harpuia was in shock. That Reploid had not been seen by anybody, Neo Arcadian or Resistance-alike, for over a year. It was Zero.

Harpuia and Aztec Falcon hid behind some debris as the giant scorpion exploded into bits of metal and dust. Glancing out, he wondered whether he should acknowledge Zero's presence when he heard Zero muttering to himself.

"Finally… I did it… but… where…?" The red Reploid's eyes closed, before tipping face-first into the sand. He didn't move again. Now that Harpuia got a closer look, he noticed that Zero was damaged, and had been that way for awhile; some of those injuries looked old.

Two things crossed the Wind Guardian's mind just then. One, Zero had not meant to engage the Neo Arcadian Defense post stationed here, and had been caught unawares, so he had fought out of self-defense. Two, Zero had apparently had no idea where the Resistance Base was. Harpuia knew, as did his siblings and the other Guardians, that the Resistance Base had moved to another location that wasn't merely a broken down building, and that had been not long after the fall of Master X. Just how long had Zero been wandering?

Feeling a sandstorm kicking in as the winds blew dust into his face, the green Guardian noted that he had better get out of there. While Reploids could not normally be killed by sandstorms, they can still get knocked around by them, and any exposed circuitry could get damaged and start to corrode.

Nevertheless, he patted Aztec Falcon and flew down to where Zero had collapsed. Harpuia kneeled next to him and noticed that Zero was, indeed, unconscious and badly injured, and probably would die if he didn't receive help soon.

"Zero... to live... or to die...?"

He sat back. What should he do? Zero was an enemy of Neo Arcadia, an Irregular; he had slain both Phantom and Master X. He didn't deserve to live. But Harpuia remembered, how, long before Master X had instilled his policy of sending Reploids to their deaths, long before he became cold and cruel towards all, how his Master had spoken fondly of the Reploid named Zero, his best friend, who had been an Irregular Hunter.

He bit his lip. Surely he couldn't kill Zero now? Not only would he be dishonoring the memory of the kinder, gentler Master X that Harpuia remembered and loved, but he would be a coward. Zero was unarmed, defenseless, and there was nothing to gain by killing a defenseless, unconscious Reploid.

Besides, it simply wasn't his style. "I must be getting soft."

As the storm's winds grew even stronger, he leaned down, and, with some effort, picked up the slightly taller Reploid. "You're heavy," he commented, half-carrying, half-dragging him over to Aztec Falcon. The bird-like Reploid tensed when it recognized Zero.

"Don't harm him," Harpuia commanded. Carefully, he managed to swing one of Zero's legs over Aztec Falcon's back, and clambered up, sitting behind Zero. Looping one arm Zero so that he wouldn't fall, he glanced out into the desert with concern. The sandstorm was growing stronger, and Harpuia was starting to lose his sight due to all the dust. "Move, Aztec!"

As Aztec Falcon screeched and took off, Harpuia thought, with some interest, that if he had flown to this area by himself, he wouldn't have been able to rescue Zero, being unable to carry him by himself. Not that he intended to rescue him in the first places. He wanted to defeat Zero himself in a fair fight, and how could he do that if the red Reploid had died out here in the desert?

The sandstorm was definitely gaining in intensity. Harpuia could barely see anything in front of him. "You can do it, Aztec!" he encouraged, shouting to make himself heard, since the wind was blowing extremely hard. He felt his grip on Zero slipping and tightened it. He wasn't going to let Zero fall here, not now. But if he didn't strengthen his own hold on the bird Reploid's back, he was going to fall off. Leaning forward, he wrapped his other arm around Aztec's neck, burying his face in Zero's hair.

_Zero has some interesting hair_, Harpuia thought as it tickled his nose slightly. _What sort of person would give a _male_ Reploid long, blond hair?_ Especially the 'long' part. Everyone in Harpuia's family had short hair, and none were blond: Master X's, his, and Phantom's were black, while Fefnir and Leviathan had brown hair.

Nearly being horizontal on Falcon's back made the journey easier to bear, and since he was practically lying on top of Zero, there was no danger of the red Reploid falling off. "Almost there…" he gritted out. A sudden burst of wind, and then he heard it – or rather, he didn't: peace and quiet. The three had left the sandstorm behind, and Aztec flew down to the ground to rest a bit.

Breathing a sigh of relief when he saw that Zero was still with him, he sat back up, dragging Zero with him. The red Reploid was still out-cold, his head rolling limply onto Harpuia's chest. "Aztec, do you remember where the Resistance Base is?" A screech. "Take me there." Another screech, and Aztec Falcon lifted off again.

It wasn't far to the Resistance Base, and Harpuia surmised that they had done a good job with its construction; it didn't look like the ramshackle, underground bunker they had once been in, but looked much more modern and high-tech, with gleaming silver walls. However, he wasn't here to admire it, or even to attack, just to simply drop something off. He carefully examined the outside of the base; if there was anyone there…

Luckily, the only person he could see was a rather tall soldier standing on the second or third floor of the base. The soldier appeared to be more interested in the datapad he was holding than what was going on outside, so Harpuia was able to get to the main entrance relatively unseen, dragging Zero with him, and propped the red Reploid down on the wall. Slowly, he took several steps back, returning to where Aztec Falcon was hiding, before mounting him.

He sat there for a few minutes, before hearing a sudden shout of "Zero!" and some rushing feet. His self-proclaimed mission finished, the green Guardian patted Aztec Falcon, and the two flew away in a streak of green, leaving behind Zero and the Resistance.

"Consider yourself lucky, Zero," Harpuia said quietly. "Next time, no compassion will save you. I'll strike you down for sure."

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Right... I can't force you to review, but I would appreciate it if you did.

Also, I'm aware that I changed Zero's speech a little.


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